Christie: New Sandy aid to clear 'everybody' off waiting list

Governor Christie speaking with Joe Mangino of Manahawkin during the town hall meeting.

Governor Christie heard about the bad and the good of the state’s Superstorm Sandy recovery at a town hall-style event in Manahawkin on Wednesday.

He also announced that the federal government would approve New Jersey’s plan for spending the second installment of recovery money – totaling $1.46 billion. The state expects to receive $882 million in the third and final installment from Washington, he said.

That last batch of money “should permit us to take everybody off the rebuilding waiting list,” said the Republican governor, who told the Ocean County crowd that he still spends “40 to 50 percent of every week” on Sandy rebuilding.

Christie heard several complaints from people who said they had struggled to secure recovery money, or who complained that second homes are not eligible for the federal programs. Christie says he raised the second home issue with President Obama, but federal officials have declined to provide any money for those houses.

Sandra Smith, who lives on Avon Beach, said she and her husband “felt victimized” by the centerpiece of New Jersey’s Sandy efforts, the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation, and Mitigation Program.

“We still have gotten nothing,” Smith said. “Every single time we talk to someone on the phone or gone to a meeting … we saw different people and every time we were told, ‘Oh no, I don’t know who told you that, but that’s not right.’”

Back in Trenton, Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Gloucester, also criticized the recovery effort. He promised to attempt to override the governor’s conditional veto of the “Sandy Bill of Rights,” a bill championed by Sweeney that was aimed at making the distribution of federal aid more effective and transparent.

“A year and a half after the storm, thousands of people are still waiting for the answers and assistance they need,” Sweeney said in a statement. “They’ve been told different answers to the same questions, been denied aid when they should have received it, and been given the run-around by bureaucracy at its worst.”

But some at Wednesday’s event with the governor were effusive in their praise of the recovery process. Jackie Terefenko, of Manahawkin, said she was “very thankful” for the money she has received so far from the RREM program.

“There’s hope now,” she said. “I’m in the rebuilding process, but there’s hope.”

Christie told the crowd that he realizes the rebuilding effort still has a ways to go.

“We cannot wait until every problem is solved to celebrate the successes we’ve had in solving problems,” he said, adding that he thinks about people “every day” who remain out of their homes. “The main reason I ran for reelection was this. I did not want to leave while this was unfinished,” he said.